Snuff Garrett

American producer, record label owner, and music executive, born July 5, 1938, Dallas, Texas; died December 16, 2015, Tucson, Arizona (aged 77). He was married to songwriter [a=Yolanda Garrett] for more than 30 years. Best known as "Snuff" Garrett (nickname is a play on Garrett's Snuff, a brand of smokeless tobacco), also referred to as Tommy Garrett.

Began career at KLIF radio, in Dallas, Texas. Relocated to Los Angeles, and worked packaging records for for George Jay. Then after further radio roles in Wichita Falls, Texas, returned to Los Angeles, and joined Liberty in promotions in 1959, soon becoming a producer, scoring numerous early 1960s hits by white rock-n-roll artists. He was a staff producer at Liberty Records from 1959 to 1965, and was responsible for hiring [a=Phil Spector] as a producer for Liberty, and discovered [a=Bobby Vee]. And was head of A&R from 1961. In 1965, he formed production company [l=Snuff Garrett Productions]. In 1966, he started his own record label, Snuff Garrett Records, and founded [l=Viva (3)] Records. In 1968, he founded [l=Amigo Studios], in North Hollywood, California, purchased from Steve Douglas for $70,000, and set up [a=J.J. Cale] as recording engineer. In late 1968, he sold his companies to Warner Bros. for $2.25 million, and intended to retire to Dallas. After a year, he returned to Los Angeles and restarted his career from scratch. In 1970, he formed [l=Garrett Music Enterprises], and was producing for Kapp and MCA, scoring hits for Cher, then later in the 1970s, producing country music, including reacquiring the Viva label, with Clint Eastwood, and founded [l=The Nostalgia Merchant]. Retired from the music business in 1983 to Arizona after suffering a stroke.